disposition; the warmth and depth of his affections; the love with which he embraced every living thing that came within the sphere of his influence. No man had truer or more faithful friends; and no one was ever served with more devoted zeal and fidelity. His domestics were his friends. They regarded him with the reverential affection that marks rather the relation of children to a parent, than the mercenary connexion of master and servant. And he merited this steady attachment on the part of his friends, and this respectful affection on the part of his dependents; he could not have possessed them, if he had not. The homage of the heart is never awarded to mere wealth, or station, or power. Nothing but genuine kindness can either acquire or preserve them. There is no such thing as counterfeiting here. There is a freemasonry of the heart, which reads the heart, and detects imposture, at once. "He speaks," said one of his humble friends, "to every body as if they were his own blood relations." Nothing can be added to this eulogy. And it was even so; and he spoke thus to every one, because he felt that, in every man he saw, he actually beheld one that was his own blood relation. Nothing but this feeling could have given the uniform tones of kindness to his voice, that awakened a kindred tone in the heart of every one that heard them.

Hence, also, the bland and generous spirit which marked his intercourse with men of letters, his rivals in a greater or less degree, and competitors for fame. He really seems to have been incapable of any touch of envy or jealous irritation. He never felt as if any man crossed his path or intercepted his sunshine; nor will any future historian of the "Quarrels of Authors" be able to derive a page from him. In the whole of his voluminous works, including his correspondence, we doubt whether it is possible to find a single petulant expression or ill-natured allusion to any living man. We know of no instance parallel to this. Yet he was not without trials in this respect, sufficient to have awakened the sentiments of envy and suspicion, had they been sleeping in his breast. His poetic star, at the height of his fame, paled before the meteoric splendor of Byron's ascending orb; and he had been wantonly assailed, too, by his successful rival. Yet no shade of resentment towards Byron seems to have lingered in his mind. Few have even judged more favorably of his powers and good qualities than Scott, or expressed a more generous indulgence for his

errors.

But we are admonished that it is time to bring our remarks to a close. We have already exceeded our just limits; but the topic swells under our hands. We deem it one of no slight importance. The works of Scott occupy, and, we think, will continue to occupy, a wide space in the literature of our language; and they lie precisely in that position, as it seems to us, that brings them to bear effectively on the great interests of society. If it be true, as Sir James Mackintosh says, that polite letters form the channel through which moral science has a constant intercourse with general feeling, it is not easy to overestimate the importance of such a class of productions. If their character and tendency be such as we regard them, their author must be considered one of the noblest benefactors of his age; and it behoves society to know and to honor its benefactors. And this duty is specially incumbent where much of the benefit conferred consists in the character and example of the benefactor himself. Such we deem the case of Sir Walter Scott; and, therefore, we regard his character as one with which it is well to be intimately conversant. We would gladly set up its living symbol, in the temple of our memory, as one of those cherished images, by the contemplation of which we might hope to grow wiser and better. Not that we would represent or consider him as a perfect and spotless model, either as an author or as a man. By no means. We look for none such; and we are content to take the example of a great and good man, with its invariable allotment of human frailty, without expecting or requiring immaculate virtue, or consummate wisdom. But we do think that his character presents a rare union of varied excellences, of resolute and active energy with lively sensibility to beauty and loveliness, of fine imagination with strong sense, of ardent patriotism with a large and liberal humanity, and of lofty genius with steady industry, order, and all the quiet virtues, that bless the walks of humble life.

Such examples are not so common, that there is any occasion for the world to forget them or be insensible to their value. Sons of genius are sons of light. Their inspiration is the inspiration of Heaven. Their peculiar gift is a high and a holy thing; and they are sent among men on a mission of love, involving a high responsibility. Alas for them, if they are recreant or unfaithful; but the crown of fidelity is, and ought to be, a crown of glory. For the fidelity of Scott we appeal to those, who read his works or dwell on the records of his life. Do VOL. XXVI. 3D S. VOL. VIII. NO. I.

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they not find themselves, on rising from the perusal, in more genial relations with their fellows, more ready to do a generous deed, more disposed to thank God that they live in this beautiful world, filled with a lighter joyousness, or bound in deeper and more touching sympathies with their kind? Let it not be said, that all these benefits might have been obtained elsewhere. Doubtless they might. The world, thank God, is full of them. Infinite goodness and beauty have never left themselves without witness, in the blue heavens, and the green earth, and amid the varied manifestations of human life. But it is something, surely, to have collected them and pointed them out. All sources whence such influences flow, are hallowed. The lights, which radiate joy and love," are lights from heaven;" and the hand that has kindled them is the hand of an angel.

M. L. H.

NOTICES AND INTELLIGENCE.

No. I.

Conducted by Printed for the 1838. Edwin

The Hawaiian Spectator. Volume I. an Association of Gentlemen. January, 1838. Proprietors. Honolulu, Oahu, Sandwich Islands. O. Hall, Printer. 8vo. pp. 112.- The appearance of the first number of a quarterly journal, published at the Sandwich Islands, and bearing a good comparison, so far as mechanical execution is concerned, with similar publications in this country, took us, we must say, a little by surprise. The objects, which will claim particular attention in this work, are thus stated in the Introductory Observations.

"With a local situation, that affords facilities for concentrating intelligence, probably superior to any other spot in the Pacific, the purpose of our journal will be, to gather from all the sources of information that may be opened upon us, and to combine correct intelligence upon topics connected with the topographical, political, and moral geography of the islands of this ocean and its surrounding continents, to afford a channel through which the facts that may be evolved in the various departments of natural history and science may be communicated to the world, to furnish philological information relative to the genius and structure of the various dialects of the Polynesian language, and notices of native literature that may be originated in these dialects, in the progress of the means of education already in use or to be instituted, to show the extent, facilities, and modes through which commercial enterprises may be conducted, and the means that may be put

in operation to pour through the various channels of commerce a salutary moral influence, and the results realized from such measures, to notice the forms of government that may be organized by the various islanders, and the relations and terms of intercourse instituted between them and foreign powers, and the tendencies of such intercourse upon the destinies of the weaker parties. It will also be our steady and prominent object, to furnish accurate and definite statements of the efforts in progress to enlighten, civilize, and Christianize the benighted on the Islands of the Pacific, and on the western continent of America, showing what has been accomplished, and what remains to be done; and, from the deeply affecting view of the character and condition of the heathen in their remote alienation from their Maker,- a view derived from actual observation, - we shall earnestly set forth the imperative necessity for vastly greater efforts, in all their forms, than have yet been projected, to enlighten and redeem the world. We shall endeavor to throw light upon the nature of the work to be achieved, the obstacles to be overcome, and the means of overcoming them; and shall exert our last ability to correct and drive out of being the egregious errors which prevail in relation to the world's conversion. pp. 4, 5.

The work is mainly in the hands of the missionaries, and entirely, we suppose, under their control; so that it can hardly be regarded as an authority, except as giving their account of the matter. Several articles in the present number are valuable; among which, we may mention particularly the fourth, on the Oahu Charity School, the fifth, on Female Education at the Sandwich Islands, the seventh, on the Causes of Decrease of the Native Population in these Islands, and the eighth, Sketches of Kauai. A careful inquiry into the actual decrease of native population has led to the following results.

"By the early navigators in these seas, the inhabitants of the several islands of this group were estimated at not less than 400,000. This was the estimate given by the scientific gentlemen who accompanied Capt. Cook in his voyage of discovery. Subsequent voyagers confirmed the correctness of the estimate. The accounts of the older and more intelligent natives, as well as the indications of a country once extensively cultivated, corroborate the probability of its truth, and prove the fact, that there was once a teeming population flourishing throughout the whole cluster of islands.

"But after the lapse of sixty years they have dwindled down to about 110,000, or about one third of their supposed original number. This estimate was made from a census taken two years since, by the school teachers, under the direction of the missionaries. A similar census had been taken four years previous, and it was ascertained that, during the four intervening years, the diminution of inhabitants throughout the islands was nearly one twelfth of the whole. In 1832 the population amounted to rising 130,000; and in 1836, only to about 110,000. I use the round numbers, as approximating sufficiently near to show a rapid decrease of population in the islands.

"According to this rate of retrogradation, it will take but fifty or sixty years to extinguish every vestige of aboriginal blood in the land. At the present day there are a large number of childless families, who have no heir, of their own blood, to inherit their little property. Perhaps not more than one in four of the families now existing have children of their own now alive!"—pp. 53, 54.

Among the causes, which have contributed to bring about this melancholy state of things, a prominent place is assigned to their oppressive and ruinous system of government.

"It must suffice to say here, that the government claim and exercise the proprietorship of the whole land, and available property thereon, in the hands of their subjects. This is the groundwork of their system, and they are taught from infancy to consider the soil of the islands as theirs in fee simple, and the common people as their tenants, to be continued or removed at pleasure. In the exercise of this claim they permit, or prohibit, to the common people, ad libitum, the exercise of any privilege, as appears to them most conducive to their own interests or the general good. As there is no stipulated compact between the lords of the soil, and the tenantry, as to the amount of gratuitous labor or taxation which is to be paid by the latter, it gives to the chiefs an arbitrary power to make exactions as often, and to just such an extent, as they think proper. p. 56.

This evil, however, bad as it is, and all the others here enumerated, dwindle into insignificance when compared with the two giant destroyers, "alcohol, and disease propagated through licentious intercourse with white men." But the details connected with these topics are so excessively painful and offensive, that we gladly turn from them to brighter prospects, which open on us in the "Sketches of Kauai."

"In the fall of 1835 Messrs. Ladd & Co. obtained from the king a long lease of a large tract of land at Koloa, for the purpose of cultivating the sugar cane. It lies three miles from a good anchorage; the soil is rich, and watered by a fine stream, which affords sufficient water power for the necessary mills.

"During the first year, all the difficulties incidental to a new country, and a total want of agricultural implements, and an ignorant, indolent people, unavoidably retarded the immediate execution of their plans. They at present have eighty acres under cultivation, and intend the ensuing year to cultivate two hundred more. The necessary buildings are now erected, and, in addition to these, a sugar mill will soon be completed at the village below, for the purpose of grinding the cane that may be cultivated by the chiefs and people. The quantity of sugar, which may be exported annually from this valley, is estimated at from two to four hundred tons.

"In 1836 Messrs. Ladd & Co. leased a portion of their land to Messrs. Peck and Titcomb, for the purpose of cultivating the mulberry and raising silk. They have now upwards of forty thousand trees, which, at nine months' growth, are as thrifty and forward as those of several